Reviews
Describes film noir as a genre that challenges the American mythology of upward mobility and self-reinvention.
Only a few of the many books on film noir are essential. This is one of them... A smart, clearly written book.
Osteen has given us a fresh, discerning, and nuanced perspective on a popular style of Hollywood films during the period 1940-1960 and has proved a reliable guide down the sinuous twistings of 'Nightmare Alley.'
Mark Osteen manages to add something new and substantial to the discourse on film noir—an examination of the ways in which the American Dream is subverted, challenged, and ultimately discounted by the harsh realities of a noir universe, which more directly aligns itself with society than the phantom hope of endless upward mobility.
Book Details
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Film Noir and the American Dream
1. "Someone Else's Nightmare": Exploring Noir Dreamscapes
2. Missing Persons: Self-Erasure and Reinvention
3. Vet Noir
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Film Noir and the American Dream
1. "Someone Else's Nightmare": Exploring Noir Dreamscapes
2. Missing Persons: Self-Erasure and Reinvention
3. Vet Noir: Masculinity, Memory, and Trauma
4. Framed: Forging Noir Identities
5. Noir's Cars: Automobility and Amoral Space
6. Nocturnes in Black and Blue: Memory, Morality,and Jazz Melody
7. Femmes Vital: Film Noir and Women's Work
8. Left-Handed Endeavor: Crime, Capitalism, and the Hollywood Left
Conclusion: American Nightmares
Notes
Filmography
Works Cited
Index